44 th International Congress on Medieval StudiesWestern Michigan University , 7-10 May 2009

Patrons and Writers at Odds: the Politics of Literary Creationin Byzantium and Beyond

This panel invites participants to examine the role (and function) ofmedieval patronage in its various manifestations and in the socio-economic structures in which it operated. Participants are welcome toconsider patron-writer relationships in late antique Mediterranean, aswell as more complex systems of patronage in Late Medieval Europe andKomnenian Byzantium; they are also invited to examine patronage in moreevolved networks of economic and political power that both necessitatedand legitimized literary innovation.

Proposals that cross over traditional disciplinary boundaries (andthose which consider the role of patronage in the context of politicalpropaganda) are especially welcome. In fact, the consideration of writersand artists--both in the East and in the West--who espoused politicalideas that explicitly or implicitly opposed political authorities iscritical to the discourse of medieval patronage as it allows a rareglimpse into the paradoxical role of medieval writers as imperial criticsand political propagandists.

Please submit 300-word-abstracts along with a brief CV and a completedParticipant Information Form (seehttp://www.wmich.edu/medinst/congress/submissions.html)to ChristinaChristoforatou at Christina_Christoforatou_at_baruch.cuny.edu (or via postin the address below) no later than September 15, 2008.